Many of the tasks related to configuring the hardware and software for a network, viewing network resources, setting up shared resources on your own computer, and diagnosing network problems can be managed from Network And Sharing Center.

Unlike Windows XP, which provides a radically different logon experience for computers joined to a domain compared with those in a workgroup or not connected to a network, the process is similar for all users of Windows 7

User Accounts won't let you delete the last local account on the computer, even if you're logged on using the account named Administrator. This limitation helps to enforce the sound security practice of using an account other than Administrator for your everyday computing.

When you install Windows 7 on a new computer, you create one user account, which is an administrator account. If you upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista and you had local accounts set up in your previous operating system, Windows migrates those accounts to your Windows 7 installation.

BitLocker Drive Encryption can be used to encrypt entire NTFS volumes, which provides excellent protection against data theft. BitLocker can secure a drive against attacks that involve circumventing the operating system or removing the drive to another computer.

The Encrypting File System (EFS) provides a secure way to store your sensitive data. Windows creates a randomly generated file encryption key (FEK) and then transparently encrypts the data, using this FEK, as it is being written to dis

You can create personal folders for synchronization, accessible only to computers logged on with your own Windows Live ID, as well as shared folders for synchronization, accessible to whomever you permit

Live Mesh is an ambitious sharing and synchronization platform available free to users of any version of Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 or later), or Mac OS X version 10.5 (Leopard) or later.

Windows synchronizes offline files, by default, about once every six hours. To set up additional regular synchronization points, open Sync Center, click View Sync Partnerships, click Offline Files, and then click Schedule on the toolbar.

Windows synchronizes offline files, by default, about once every six hours. To set up additional regular synchronization points, open Sync Center, click View Sync Partnerships, click Offline Files, and then click Schedule on the toolbar.

The offline files feature is enabled by default, but it can be disabled. If you're using the Professional or Ultimate/Enterprise edition of Windows 7 and you don't see the Always Available Offline command on the shortcut menu for a shared network item, open Control Panel on the server computer.

For accidental deletions, your first stop should be the Recycle Bin, a Windows institution since 1995. If you don't find what you're looking for in the Recycle Bin, your next recourse is a considerably more powerful recovery tool called Previous Versions.

Every file you view in Windows Explorer has a handful of properties that describe the file itself: the file name and file name extension (which in turn defines the file type), the file's size, the date and time it was created and last modified, and any file system attributes.

The basic techniques for arranging data in folders have changed in subtle but significant ways in Windows 7. This version of Windows is far more reliable than its predecessors at recognizing the settings you've applied to a folder and retaining those settings so that they remain in place the next time you visit that folder.

Windows 7 introduces a new organizational element called libraries, which make it easier to view, sort, search, and filter similar items, even when those items are stored in multiple physical locations.

A user profile contains all the settings and files for a user's work environment. In addition to personal documents and media files, this profile includes the user's own registry settings, cookies, Internet Explorer Favorites, and user data and settings for installed programs.

You can search on the basis of any property recognized by the file system. To see the whole list of available properties, right-click any column heading in Windows Explorer and choose More from the shortcut menu

The Indexing Options dialog box is also your gateway to buttons and check boxes that let you rebuild a corrupted index, change the location where the index stores its data, add folders to the index, change how the index deals with particular file types, and so on

Windows Search is the collective name for a set of features that affect practically every aspect of Windows 7. At its heart, Windows Search relies on a speedy, powerful, and well-behaved indexing service that does a fine job of keeping track of files and folders by name, by properties, and (in supported formats) by contents.

The .reg files created by the Export command in Registry Editor are plain text, suitable for reading and editing in Notepad or any similar editor. Therefore, they provide an alternative method for editing your registry.

One relatively safe way to edit your registry is to back up the section you're interested in before you make any changes to it. If something goes wrong, you can usually use your backup file to restore the registry to the state it was in when you backed up.

A service is a specialized program that performs a function to support other programs. Many services operate at a very low level (by interacting directly with hardware, for example) and need to run even when no user is logged on.

To begin creating a new task, select the folder in the console tree where you want the task to reside. If you need to create a new folder for this purpose, right-click the folder's parent in the console tree and choose New Folder from the shortcut menu.

The Windows 7 Task Scheduler, which requires no programming expertise, is probably the most important automation tool at your disposal. You can use it to set up automated routines, to be triggered by events or by a schedule.

The System application displays the Windows edition currently running, system details (including processor type, installed memory, and whether the current operating system is a 32-bit or 64-bit version), details about the computer name and domain or workgroup, and the current activation status.

Microsoft has made considerable changes to UAC in Windows 7. Users, whether logged on with an administrator account or a standard account, see far fewer prompts than in Windows Vista. In Windows 7, standard users can view Windows settings (in Device Manager, for example) without requiring elevation.

Spyware is a term that has come to describe a variety of undesirable software programs, whose bad behavior ranges from annoying you with pop-up ads to surreptitiously sending your private information to other people

A virus is a computer program that replicates by attaching itself to another object. Viruses can infect program files, documents (in the form of macro viruses), or low-level disk and file-system structures such as the boot sector and partition table